Team Ninja Head Speaks On Losing Itagaki

1UP: "It's been over two years since Tomonobu Itagaki -- game-dev bad boy and chief mind behind Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden -- suddenly left Team Ninja, the development studio he helped put on the map. Itagaki fell off the limelight for a bit before announcing the founding of Valhalla Game Studios this past March, an independent dev he's running alongside fellow ex-Tecmo dev Satoshi Kanematsu. Team Ninja themselves, though, have never talked much in public about how the headline-grabbing defections in 2008 affected them as a studio...until now, that is."

But while in the subject of Kojima - I find it funny you guys can say the loss of Itagaki is nothing to them when he was really the key person of that company, leading all development for their games.

So if Kojima left Kojima productions, you all would still say "That's like losing a tooth brush. Sure, you were comfortable with it...but better tooth brushes have been made since yours came out." ? Wait, of course you wouldn't - look at how MGS: Rising is being treated.

He did more for that company that just sexist games. Not only that but most of Team Ninja that worked close with Itagaki and was loyal friends left when he left to Vahalla Studios. So depending on who exactly is left and what parts the members who left played, @Fox01 is probably correct.

It is more than just Itagaki, most of Itagaki's new team is made up of veterans from Team Ninja. The current Team Ninja is a lot younger and greener.

As for value and impact of Itagaki. Well he is the main reason why Tecmo is still here today, Itagaki saved their asses with the first "Dead or Alive", and that is why it is called "Dead or Alive", because the game was going to determine whether Tecmo is going to be "Dead or Alive". Same deal with Final Fantasy...

Or even ~"can we wobble the boobs, now?". Itigaki's boob infused dev strategy will take some replacing that's for sure. Extra gory boobs, naturally, would be the natural end result if we allowed Tomonobu his head, wouldn't it?

In fairness I kind of like Itigaki's work on the NG series(even if NG2 got daft with gore and a camera that obscured the action at times)and didn't mind all the silly "I wear sunglasses in bed AND in the bath cos I'm a rock*!!!" BS he lives out too much either. I like characters, even misguided misogynists as long as they're harmless, in the industry but when you have a big character like his running the show more quiet and limelight shunning, but talented, devs at the same team are sometimes washed away or left in the dark. Perhaps he left at a good time for some of the guys still at TN and they can flourish without his need for the spotlight shaping everything TN do.

We'll soon see when "Devil's.." and the next, proper DoA or NG game land in the near future exactly how both sides will fare without the other. Nothing, so far, to tell us how they'll all do. Nice to see this guy giving Iti and Co respect but still believing in his fellow staff at TN-maybe they can keep up or build on the old series'.

"Reknowned" game studio heads are rarely all that important to their dev studio, except as a figurehead.

By the time you become a figurehead, you're doing administrative and PR work -- that's good for the team as a whole, but its the team you hire that are the real talent. That's why you hired them.

If a studio loses 30+ staff, that's a big deal, and it often wrecks the company, because inevitably the higher-ups let go of people they didn't want to, and the recovery is painful. If they lose a figurehead or two, that's not a big deal... at least not in the short-term during which the team made by that person still exists.

Infinity Ward would still be respectable, if it had only been Zampella and West that had left, as an example. Once a significant chunk of the rest of the team bailed, though, that was the real end of IW.

People, too often, mistake the lack of high-level, high-visibility positions at companies as being a lack of talent to fill such positions. That's just not true -- the skills required to be decent, or even excellent, in those jobs are not rare at all. It's only that there are just a few positions available, and the power they have, that makes them important.

Losing masses of people... now that hurts. If you could make a list of the "top 10 people who hurt company XYZ the most when they left", by rewinding time and watching what happens each time a different individual leaves, I'll wager that 99% of the people on that list would be in the "average joe" section of the credits for company XYZ's games -- people you have never read the name of, except in passing, via a credits screen. Engineers, artists, designers. Producers, directors, presidents, CTOs, CFOs, etc.. you wouldn't see them much -- they can be replaced easier than you might think.

Without Itagaki, Tecmo would have no identity. It would be like the Yankees losing Derek Jeter or Lakers losing Kobe Bryant. Now let's see what they do. Keeping my eye on NG3, hoping it's going to be very good. Let's see if the new guy can make a good game on his own.

That's a really bad analogy. Losing a lead engineer, or lead artist, would be the equivalent of losing Kobe or Jeter. Losing a good coach might be the equivalent of losing a lead designer. Itagaki was none of those things.

This was more like the Yankees losing Steinbrenner. Sure, it hurt emotionally... but the team wasn't really any worse off for it.

You're right, it's not like Itagaki's team didn't make great games that reviewed great, were loved by fans and gamers, and sold really well to boot. No one ever talks about how much they love Ninja Gaiden [Xbox] or Dead or Alive [any].

Remember, Tecmo had to merge with Koei after the departure of Itagaki and various other Team Ninja staff members. Various members had to resign in disgrace due to his walking out. Has Tecmo/Team Ninja even released a game since then that is memorable? Metroid: Other M doesn't count since the team that made it was made up of three different studios, Team Ninja included. Ninja Gaiden Sigma doesn't count either since the core work is largely Itagaki's.

Ninja Gaiden 3 doesn't seem to be setting the world on fire so far either, but to be fair, we know very little about the game.

Team Ninjas games are not worse than they were previously. They're on the wrong platform, is all. Look at Metroid Prime's sales on the Wii, compared to the GC, which was only like 1/3rd the installed base. You think Retro sucks now too? ...or is it the console demographics?

And.. lol... Dead or Alive is better off gone, bud. It was a shoddy fighter, at best. Soul Calibur, Tekken, VF, basically every fighter in existance wipes the floor with it. DoA had ONE thing going for it, and it was the same contribution that NGS2 added over NG2 (hint: they come in pairs). That not an excuse for not having an actual decent game. NG2's sales, btw, were shoddy -- arguably worse than the new Metroid, given the cost to make it. Itagaki was there though...

Ninja Gaiden was good, at least -- it doesn't even breach the 90s on metacritic, if you hadn't noticed, but I don't think the credit belongs so much to Itagaki as you seem to think. The games industry is FAR from a one man show. FAR from. No individual is even as remotely important as even a small group.

Honestly, if you disagree with that statement, you'd have to be pretty foolish, and frankly ignorant, when it comes to producing a product like a modern console game.

I never said anything about Other M's sales but if you want to go that route, look at how well Itagaki's titles would sell when they were released. He had a following

A good portion of the Ninja Gaiden team which worked for Itagaki left along with him. Many of them are now working at Valhalla Studios.

Dead or Alive is better off dead? You're right, a series which such a huge fanbase and history should just be left to die. The series sold well, reviewed well, and was positively received by the fanbase. Say what you will but Itagaki and Team Ninja knew what they were doing to keep people happy. I'm not sure about the Volleyball titles though.

Ninja Gaiden 2...oh, you mean that game they were developing while most of the intercompany politics was going on? Itagaki left weeks before the game was released and these issues came to light around the same time, anyone who expected a smooth development cycle in the midst of all of this is lying to themselves. Despite this, the game still sold over 1 million units on the Xbox 360 within the first month of release. Not sure what your definition of "shoddy" is, I don't think Other M cracked this number in the first month. Itagaki was also concurrently working on Dragon Sword for the DS at the same time.

Bnet-never use an analogy like that. No sports team fails to be bigger than ALL of it's players let alone just ONE. ~Man Utd didn't fold when Ronaldo left last year, did they? Sure, it slowed them down a little but in the greater scheme of things losing a key player is still a mere blip for the history of a sporting team.

I realise the ties with history aren't as strong in the US with a lot of your teams based on moving(or that can be moved)franchises so they aren't as grounded in their community but it still holds that no ONE player could ever be said to be as big as the Yankees or whoever whatever the sport. Even a great coach is still just a page in these histories(bar a couple of club altering men like Shankley or someone similar and even then it's the club that gives THEM their chance really)and a great lead dev/director is much more like a petty dictator compared-it's a very different thing really and not to be compared in my book.

EDIT:That said-when a team does keep making great games after their head guy leaves it could be seen as the team , even there, being bigger than any individual but that depends more on the working practises before and after the split in my opinion.

The team is still thriving and are doing games Team Ninja would never have done before because Itagaki was just too stubborn. its kind of how Ted price placed it in saying that him having to manage the position of CEO and Game director really hurt the company and the end resulting product of both the resistance games and the full moon crew so relinguishing his title to just being the CEO meant the teams true aspects and input can truely come into fruition was the benifit to whole company. and i aggree. being in a position where you've been hailed as the Star leave little room for others to grow and shine. no mater what you may have done for your company. no matter how great your games are, you are simply being a bottle neck for your company and it does have adverse affects on the team you work for.

Personally speaking, the games Itagaki Made this Gen have been average outing, he's lost his shine and that was evident. The new hed of Team ninja has dones some pretty great games since he's left that run better and far more stable than Itagaki ever has. i look forward to Team Ninja's next few outing as Other M was great. the DOA:dimensions on 3DS looks amazing and i cant wait for NG3. lets not get ahead of ourselves. Itagaki brought memorabale game experiences on the xbox and while i wouldn't consider his offerings on the 360 better id say he did a pretty good job, We'll see what he has instored for us in 2012 with Devil's Third.

I guess Itagaki leaving Team NINJA is a BIG shock to the gaming industry! Everyone just sees Team NINJA as Itagaki because he had always spoken for them and acted as if he made those games single handedly.

Every interview with Hayashi had always asked a question about Itagaki and the way things are now.

I don't think people would put this behind them, Itagaki is gone so it's best to look forward to the future. People will probably forget 3 years time or when Itagaki releases his game.

Itagaki is a dev that changed the industry and had as huge impact on fighting and Hack&slash games as Kojima had on the stealth and action genre. What I did not like about him though is he always trash talked his Competition. "GOW and DMC are SHIT".Anyways he was treated unfairly and I wish him the best. Does anyone see a pattern with Temco and the activision. IW saga? What is up with these Money hungry CEOs that don't even forfill there promises of payments and bonuses. I sure Hope Namora gets his or wada can say bye bye to him. I also was so sure that M$ was going to give Itagaki a call and give him his own studio or add him to there own first party studio.